RUSH: So Benghazi, that’s “a long time ago.” “Benghazi happened a long time ago.” I mean, why is everybody bringing that up now? Yet everything remains the fault of George W. Bush. From the Weekly Standard: “White House spokesman Jay Carney said in response to a question about the September 11, 2012 Benghazi terror attack that it ‘happened a long time ago.’ ‘Let’s be clear,’ said Carney.

“‘Benghazi happened a long time ago. We are unaware of any agency blocking an employee who would like to appear before Congress to provide information related to Benghazi.'” Really? See, this is the modus operandi of the regime — any Democrat regime, actually. You stonewall it for a few months, and then after a few months go by you say, “It’s an old story.” Didn’t Watergate happen a long time ago? It still seems to be really relevant, Watergate.

Benghazi is not even eight months ago. Anyway, it’s a bit ironic to hear Jay Carney talking about spreading misinformation. Isn’t that what he does for a living? “Yeah, it’s a long time ago,” or, “We’re not aware of any whistleblowers being prevented from coming forward…” No, that’s why they’re going on TV disguised in masks with their voices altered. Let’s go to the audio sound bites. We have a montage here, January, April, Monday, and today. It’s Hillary, John Kerry, Obama, and Carney talking about the lack of importance of the Benghazi information…

HILLARY: (screeching) Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided they would go kill Americans? What difference does it make?

KERRY: We got a lot more important things to move on to and get done.

OBAMA: I’m not familiar with this notion that, uhhh, anybody’s been blocked from testifying.

CARNEY: Benghazi happened a long time ago.

RUSH: That was Hillary back in January. “Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided they would go kill Americans? What difference does it make?” What difference does Benghazi make now? That was January. John Kerry in April. “Well, we got a lot more important things to move on to, get done here.” Benghazi, who cares? Obama in April, “Uh, I’m not familiar with this notion anybody been blocked from testifying.”

Carney, “It happened a long time ago.” Nothing to see here. “What difference dos it make?” So this is the modus operandi: Stonewall it, and then it’s “an old story
” that nobody is interested in. All these months later, the FBI finally releases surveillance photos of the suspects. They had these pictures on day one. This is like the LA Times has a story today on health care. “Part-Timers to Lose Pay Amid Health Act’s New Math.” Now, this is a cover-up.

The LA Times could have reported this story two months ago, or two years ago!

Two years, when Obamacare was in its infancy when it was being debated, we knew this. We knew that companies were gonna shift people from full time to part time so they wouldn’t have to cover ’em. The LA Times, just today, reports this. It’s a cover-up. It’s the same thing with the regime here on Benghazi. Happened eight months ago? “That’s forever ago! It doesn’t matter. That’s old, doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant.” So now we have, after all these months, the FBI finally releases surveillance photos. They had these pictures on day one, just like everybody in the media knew about Obamacare on day one. Instead they blamed the video.

He’s a montage for you…

OBAMA: I don’t care how offensive this video was, it was terribly offensive and we should shun it.

HILLARY: (haltingly) This video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose, to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage.

CARNEY: Let’s be clear. These protests were in reaction to a video that had spread to the region.

OBAMA: You had a video that was released by somebody who lives here, sort of a shadowy character, who is — an extremely offensive video.

CARNEY: The unrest we’ve seen has been in reaction to a video.

OBAMA: A crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world.

RICE: It was a spontaneous, not a premeditated, response — a direct result of a heinous and offensive video.

OBAMA: I know there are some who ask, “Why don’t we just ban such a video?” The answer is enshrined in our laws. Our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech.

RUSH: That’s Obama talking to the Star Wars bar scene at the UN General Assembly trying to explain to them about our Constitution. They’re laughing under their breath. “We know what it says. That’s why we hate it! You don’t have to preach it to us.” Anyway, they knew. They’ve had these photos since day one. They’ve had these surveillance photos since day one. But they had to go out and blame the video to try to distract everybody.

Tuesday night, Special Report on the Fox News Channel. The correspondent, Adam Housley, interviewed an unidentified special operator — face blacked out, voice changed for the interview. Obama says, “I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t come forward. We’re not trying to stop that.” This guy is trying to tell the truth about what happened at Benghazi. Housley says, “The US has identified the mastermind of the Benghazi attack, who is still in Libya and still walks free; is that right?”

OPERATIVE: (distorted voice) We basically don’t want to upset anybody. And the problem is if Ambassador Stevens’ family knew that we’re sitting on information about the people who killed their son, their brother — and we could look them, as a government, in the face — then we’re messing up. We’re messing up.

RUSH: Again, an unidentified special operator on Fox — face blacked out, voice altered for the interview. Adam Housley says to him, “The US has identified the mastermind…” And, by the way, they’re not talking about the guy in jail that did the video. They’ve given that up now. “The US has identified the mastermind of the Benghazi attack, who is still in Libya and still walks free; is that right?” The guy says, “We basically don’t want to upset anybody.

“And the problem is if Ambassador Stevens’ family knew that we’re sitting on information about the people who killed their son, their brother — and we could look them, as a government, in the face — then we’re messing up. We’re messing up.” So we had to try to pretend we didn’t know what had happened and blame the guy who did the video. And now they’re saying, “Well, that’s a long time ago. It doesn’t matter.”

But Bush is still being blamed for everything, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: “What difference does it make now?” Jay Carney may as well have said that. “You know, Benghazi, it’s a long time ago. What difference does it make now?” I remember people, I might have been one of them myself, but I do remember other people say at the time that an obvious cover-up was underway, I remember people saying, “This is not going to go away.” This is gonna haunt the regime, and it is. That is proving to be accurate. And, by the way, the media is again today and last night very concerned with the status of the regime and their second term.

I think there’s more going on here than simply trying to goose Obama into getting back into gear, getting energetic. I think there is some serious concern that the wheels have come off Obama’s agenda. I think they really fear it. I’ll demonstrate what I mean as the program unfolds.

Back, however, to Fox News last night, Special Report, the correspondent Adam Housley interviewing the special operator, unidentified, face blacked out, voice altered for the interview to protect his identity. He’s a whistleblower, and he is scared, maybe alarmed that he could be targeted if his identity were known.

After the special operator, responding to Housley, who claimed we know who the mastermind is. He’s still in Libya, and he’s still walking around free. The special operator said we didn’t want to upset anybody. If Ambassador Stevens’s family knew that we were sitting on information about the people that killed their son, we couldn’t look ’em in the face as a government. And the special operator then had this to say.

OPERATIVE: (distorted voice) We have all the capability, all the training, all the capacity to kill and capture not only terrorists involved with the specific events of 9/11 and Ambassador Stevens’ death, but terrorists who are feeding other regions, including Europe that eventually could affect our national security in the short-term. We’re not talking midterm or long term. This is short-term.

HOUSLEY: The community is pretty frustrated?

OPERATIVE: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It’s a daily frustration.

RUSH: Now, I know that some people on the left are thinking that Fox went out and found this guy. He’s an actor or he’s a malcontent member of the military. He’s a conservative Republican, has it in for the regime, and they’ll try to dismiss this guy and his colleagues that way. There’s a problem with that, though. There are people that really feel this way. You know as well as I do there have to be people all over, as he said, the Special Ops community, military community. They know what our capabilities are. They know what was available that night. They know what could have been done. They were prepared to do it. That’s their job. That’s why they sign up.

An American ambassador was under attack in a consulate. That’s what they’re there to do is to defend and protect those guys, and they were told to twiddle their thumbs. And then after that they sit around and they watch a cover-up. But that happened a long time ago. As Hillary said, “What difference does it make?” What’s that got to do with anything? What difference that make? So they are coming forward.

Now we go to CNN. Erin Burnett OutFront last night. She spoke with their Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, about the release of photos of the suspects, which, again, they had on day one.

BURNETT: The question is, why did it take about eight months to figure this out, to get these photos to the public? Would it ever have happened if there didn’t continue to be such incredible controversy about Benghazi?

RUSH: And this is what the CNN infobabe said.

STARR: Well, that’s a great question, Erin, to which there’s no immediate answer. What a surprise. The FBI says they’re doing it simply because they’re at the point in the investigation when it makes the most sense, but you’re right, eight months later, these men, where they are? Who even knows where they are? But they want to talk to them. They said this video surveillance camera saw them there the night of the attack and they want to see what they know about it. Not calling them suspects yet. It raises some very interesting questions. What else does the FBI know? What kind of cooperation are they getting from the Libyans? Why are they focusing in on these three men and these pictures of them there the night the attack happened back in September?

RUSH: And why now? Eight months later. So that’s the latest on Benghazi. We’ve got potential suspects. We’ve got video surveillance that has ’em on video since day one. And in reaction to the special operator coming forward in disguise, voice altered, and the availability on the release of the photos and the video, the administration says, “Well, that’s eight months ago, that’s old now.” Again, the modus operandi.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Davenport, Iowa, as we head to the phones to start. This is Emmerich. Great to have you here. Hi.

CALLER: (garbled throughout) Hello, Rush. Thank you for taking my call. It’s a privilege being on your show.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I have a question. Is anybody other than myself concerned about the stonewalling deception or whatever you want to call it pertaining to Benghazi when you compare that to Boston, and how in Boston — within 24 hours — they had the video screened; within 72 hours they were in hot pursuit and actually in apprehension of the suspects?

RUSH: That is an excellent question. I don’t think it needs even any added analysis or commentary from the host. That’s how well stated your question is.

CALLER: Well, thank you.

RUSH: You bet. It’s a great question. We have had lots of excellent questions, and that’s entirely due to the inspiration these people are getting from me. It always is the case. Just kidding. That’s the kind of stuff that the 24-year-old girls start getting mad at and saying I threaten them and they leave. It’s just a little braggadocio humor. “Nobody’s supposed to be that sure of themselves, Mr. Limbaugh! Nobody is, nobody is — and you’re not either! You’re just thinking it.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Jim in Manassas, Virginia, you are next on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Rush, it’s great to talk to you. I just want to let you know this Benghazi thing has really roiled me and the cover-up that’s ongoing is monstrous. This is unprecedented. I worked in the White House Situation Room under three presidents: Nixon, Carter, and Reagan. And no president —

RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, how does that happen? You couldn’t have been a political appointee, then, you had to be career.

CALLER: I was an intelligence officer.

RUSH: Okay. Okay.

CALLER: And no president would have summarily gone to bed after having been told by a secretary of defense that an ambassador was missing and under attack and that people were being killed. There’s no way. I mean, look at Carter.

RUSH: Jim, that’s the thing. We don’t know that he went to bed, but from five o’clock until three the next morning or four, he’s off the grid. Nobody knows where he went. He told Hillary and Leon Panetta (paraphrasing), “You guys deal with it, whatever you need to do.” But the consulate and ambassador, under assault, under military attack, and nobody knows where he went.

CALLER: Well, the thing is the three principals didn’t even talk to each other, Hillary or Panetta or Obama. I mean, this is outrageous. Given the kind of activity that’s available in the Situation Room, I worked there decades ago, but you can imagine what there is now. You know, they had their finger on the pulse of everything, everywhere.

RUSH: Jim, get over it. It happened eight months ago.

CALLER: Right. No, but these men, their lives were snuffed out. They could have been helped and saved. And this man, this president and Panetta and Hillary turned their backs on them.

RUSH: You know, it looks that way. That’s the thing. It looks that way and then they blame it on the video. They treated this incident as though it’s akin to the cost of doing business. “Well, if we’re gonna have a consulate, it’s gonna sometimes come under attack when somebody does a video. It’s gonna happen.” If it’s ever learned that he was out shooting hoops in the White House gym… whew. I don’t know that that’s what was going on. If attention continues to be ratcheted up on this, and then in context, yeah, he was out playing basketball, yeah, low-information voters would care about that. If just out of the blue he’s playing basketball and the thing happened seven months ago, that’s all that’s known about it all, it wouldn’t have any impact on ’em at all.

It’s gonna be hard for the media to fend off, to hell with the low-information voter. If that’s ever learned, it will be tough for Cokie Roberts and Brokaw to go on TV, “Well, we totally understand. You gotta play hoops, get ready for your brackets,” or whatever the hell, it’s gonna be a hard thing to defend.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News. She’s been one of the few Drive-By reporters pursuing the Benghazi story, and she said yesterday that she feels alone pursuing it. She really has been. She’s really been the lone wolf pursuing Benghazi. But it’s continuing to unfold. It really has.